Such a Sad Affair
by The Mousetalon
Summary: Lily and James Potter have been murdered. Sirius has been send to Azkaban after killing poor Peter. Does Remus have a friend left in the world? How will his life change now that all his loved ones have been killed? Rated T for good measure. Please review!
1. Chapter 1

**(This fic will be based around Remus Lupin, and how he lived after James and Lily were killed, Sirius was in Azkaban and Peter disappeared. Please review even if you hate it! I love feedback! Hope you enjoy it)**

With a crack, a raggedy man appeared at the already crowded scene. Muggles and Wizards alike were all crowded around the burning house, the walls on one side blown away. Remus Lupin's breath caught in his throat at the sight of it. He ran a hand through his light brown hair and pushed his way through the crowd as fast as he could. He had to see the damage. Were James and Lily alright? Harry? Who had done this?

Remus suspected the Death Eaters at first, but nobody knew where Lily and James were, they were under the fidelus charm. Unless… No. Sirius would never betray James. He would never sacrifice Harry to him, or break Lily's trust. When he made his way to the front, Hagrid, the massive half giant stood, holding something in his arms. Remus ran up to him.

"Hagrid! What's happened? Is everybody alright?" He asked in panic.

"Remus… I'm 'fraid… Lily and James, they've been murdered!" He blubbered, sobbing into his bushy black beard. Remus stood, shocked. That was impossible. They couldn't… James… His oldest friend.

"Oh.. Oh my… Is Harry… Did they kill Harry too?" He said. He almost couldn't ask. He couldn't bear it if his best friends child had been murdered too.

"No. Harry survived. He survived the killing curse!" Hagrid said

Remus furrowed his brow, the intellectual in him was intrigued.

"But nobody can survive that!" He said. Hagrid, as if to prove it, held out the tiny bundle of blankets. In it, Harry Potter lay, sleeping. He looked perfectly fine, except for a still red and bleeding cut on his forehead. Remus swept away a tuft of black hair to get a better look. A lighting bolt was cut into his head.

"Who did it? I mean, was it Lestrange, Dolohov?" Remus asked, suddenly writhing with anger and sadness, and the desire for revenge.

Hagrid shook his head "Neither, it was him. You-Know-Who himself."

"Where did he go?" Remus was surprised, Voldemort very rarely entered the fray of battle himself, especially something as simple to him as killing a family…

"He vanished! That's what people re' saying." Hagrid said

"But… How?"

"I don't know, but I better not stay to chat. I need to get Harry to Dumbledore." Hagrid said, sounding sad. "He's ter go live with his Aunt and Uncle."

There was a rumble from the street. A motorbike roared down the street, going way faster than it should. A man with long black hair got off and ran towards Remus and Hagrid. He looked horrified at the house.

"Remus, Hagrid! I've just heard what happened. James and Lily…" Sirius said,

Remus nodded, still in shock.

"Hagrid, let me take Harry, I'm his godfather." Sirius said confidently

"I'm afraid I can't do that, I'm under orders from Dumbledore." the Half-Giant said. His loyalty to Dumbledore never failed.

Sirius looked frustrated. But he needed to take care of his best friends son.

"Fine then, take my motorbike. Get him to safety." Sirius said.

"Are you sure?" Hagrid said

"Yes. I won't be needing it anymore." Sirius said. There was something odd about these words. Remus, for the first time ever was suspicious of his old friend. Hagrid nodded and walked to the cycle.

"Till' next time. Remus, Sirius." He nodded to each of them, and with one last sad look to the burning house, he rode off, once out of the sight of the muggles, Hagrid took off, flying off into the night sky. Sirius's eyes lingered to Hagrid before turning back to Remus.

"I'll be back, I have to go fix something." Sirius said, beginning to walk off

"What? Sirius, this really isn't the time to be a hero, you should wait for orders from Dumbledore." Remus said.

"Remus, the time for waiting is over! James and Lily are dead now, and I need to find a way to fix what I have done." Remus was startled by these words. Sirius walked off. Remus tried to follow, but before he could get to him, there was another crack and Sirius disappeared.

Remus sighed at his stubbornness. He looked back towards the house, the reality of what happened hitting him. Two of his best friends were dead, never coming back. He just hopped that Peter was alright. The small man was no match for any Death Eaters, even the weakest of them. Remus hated so say it, but it was true.

The fire danced in front of him. He hoped it had been quick. Not like the torture the Longbottoms had to endure. He couldn't stand to think of his friends like that. They were too young.


	2. Bittersweet

Chapter 2

_A young Remus Lupin stands among the crowd of frightened first years. Although the nerves of going up in front of everybody are getting to him, he is delighted. His entire life, Remus thought he would never get to go to Hogwarts because of what he was. But then the wonderful and brilliant man, Albus Dumbledore became headmaster. Professor Dumbledore let him come, as long as precautions were taken around the full moon. The Sorting hat began to sift through the 11 year olds. _

"_Sirius Black" the spectacled woman called from the front. There was some muttering at his name, primarily from the Slythein table. Remus's father had told him about the blacks, they were an old pure blood family. He would probably be sorted into Slytherin. The raven haired boy walked up confidently to the hat, putting it on his head. The hat paused for a long while. Finally it spat out _

"_Gryffindor!" Sirius looked surprised and a little frightened. He looked over at the Slytherin table, where a few people were glaring at him. After a moment of hesitation, he moved to the table of clapping students dressed in red and gold. _

"_Lily Evans." The woman called. A pretty girl with shoulder length red hair walked up to the stage, her face flushing to cherry red. He sat down and hesitantly put the hat on. It didn't take as long as it took to sort her into Gryffindor. _

"_Remus Lupin." She called. Remus stiffened. There was a bit of muttering from the teachers table, they must be the ones who knew about him. Remus glanced at Professor Dumbledore momentarily, who gave him a reassuring nod. Remus walked slowly to the platform and put the old hat on his light brown hair. He heard a voice in his head._

"_Right then. Ahh, the werewolf, I've heard the headmaster speaking about you…"_

"_Is that important?" Remus asked, he hoped he wouldn't be sorted just because of that… _

"_Not at all, my dear boy, just a note. Courage, you have, but intelligence, oh yes intelligence. Difficult. Loyalty is here too…"_

"_Then what is it?" Remus thought, it seemed like he had been up there for ages. _

"_I think you'd do very well in Gryffindor. Yes. That's right." The hat said _

"_Gryffindor!" it called out loud. There was a fair amount of applaud from the Gryffindor table, where the red headed girl and the black haired boy had sat down. Remus smiled and walked down happily, sitting next to Lily. _

_Later, Remus stood next to his new four poster bed in the Gryffindor boys dormitory. His roommates, James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew weren't making any move to unpack their belongings, unless you count strewing clothes on the floor. Remus was carefully unpacking his worn out clothes and putting them into drawers. He pulled out about eight books, a variation of hardback and paperback, Muggle and wizard. The bespectacled boy, James raised an eyebrow at him _

"_Why did you bring books to school?" He asked, as if it were unheard of to read._

"_I… Um… I like to read…" Remus said, still a bit awkward around people his own age. He had never been around them before, so his social skills were a bit off. _

"_You _like _to read?" Sirius said, looking at him with the strange expression _

"_Um… Yeah…" He said quietly "Why, is that… Bad?" _

"_Bad, it's just weird!" James said "Nobody really likes to read. And that book is huge!" _

_Remus looked at the one in his hand, Shakespeare's Hamlet. _

"_It's a play…" Remus said, quickly putting it on his nightstand. _

"_Weird…" Sirius said, but dropped to subject "What's your name again, kid?" _

"_Remus… Remus Lupin…" He said, confidence greatly thrown_

"_That's a strange name." Sirius said_

_James smirked "And Sirius isn't?"_

"_Oy!" He said, punching him. They seemed to be getting along well._

"_It's a star." Remus said, noting the name Sirius "The dog star."_

"_That's what my mum said." Sirius said "What about yours?"_

"_It's from Roman mythology… There were two brothers who were raised by wolves, Romulus and Remus. Romulus killed his brother and founded Rome…" _

"_Did you memorize an encyclopedia?" James said, actually beginning to like this kid, he would be helpful for homework. The pudgy boy, Peter, giggled at this. _

"_Oh… No… I don't think I could do that…" Remus said, not noting the sarcasm in James's voice. James and Sirius laughed. Apparently what he said was funny. _

Remus sighed as the memory of meeting his best friends played over in his head. He was pacing around his small flat, waiting for Dumbledore to give him news. As if on queue, there was a knock on the door. Remus was going to open it as quickly as he could, but stopped at the door, opening it a crack. He held out his wand

"What was the first detention I ever had at Hogwarts?" He asked, knowing that the real Dumbledore would know the answer.

"You, Sirius Black, James Potter and Peter Pettigrew blew up all of the toilets nearest to the Slytherin dormitories." He said.

Remus opened the door the full way and opened the door. It was a bit odd seeing Dumbledore in his too small, very raggedy flat. He put his wand back in his pocket and shut the door as the man walked in.

"Is there news?" Remus asked

"Yes. And I'm afraid it isn't pleasant. I think you'd better sit down." Dumbledore said solemnly.


	3. The Boy Who Lived, The Family That Died

**(I'm just knocking these out, aren't I?)**

Remus sat on the ratty old couch. He was leaned over, his fingers twined in his hair.

"I- can't… I can't believe this…" Remus said, his voice slightly muffled to Dumbledore, who was sitting across from him.

"It's a shock to all of us, Remus. Nobody would ever suspect that Sirius would betray us." Dumbledore said, keeping calm.

"He couldn't… He wouldn't… James was his best friend!" Remus said. He had lost everything tonight. Everybody he had loved.

"Voldemort was a powerful wizard. He was capable of manipulating anybody." Dumbledore said. He put his hand on Remus's shoulder. He suddenly felt as naïve and stupid as he was when he was waiting to be sorted, looking to the old man for reassurance as he walked up. Why hadn't he seen the signs? Or stopped Sirius from leaving after he had given Hagrid his bike?

"Can… Can I see him? Sirius I mean?" Remus asked

Dumbledore pondered this for a moment. "I suppose something can be arranged, but are you sure you wish to go to Azkaban? It appears that Sirius went mad before he was taken away."

"I'm sure. I need to ask him why. I need to understand…" Remus said

"I'll talk to the Minister." Dumbledore said. He stood up from the chair. Remus followed him to the door. Dumbledore turned to Remus.

"Things will look better, my boy. You may be lonely now, but these things won't last forever." He said, patting his shoulders. The man walked out of Remus's door calmly. Remus breathed out harshly.

He had never felt more alone, even when he was a child. What would he even do without the Marauders? He hadn't been without them since they had become friends in second year… He needed to stop wallowing in self pity. He had more important things to worry about. Harry. He needed to see if he was okay.

James had always complained about Lily's family, but Remus had always assumed that he was exaggerating, as he always did on such things. Remus was not expecting what he got. He apparated to a side street, and began walking down the side walk towards Number 4 Privet Drive. The werewolf knocked on the mahogany door. A pudgy man opened the door. He looked rather like a toad to Remus.

"Hello. My name is Remus Lupin, is this the Dursley residence?" He asked, smiling a bit.

"Whatever you have, we're not buying it." the man said, beginning to close the door. Remus put his foot in the door. "Please, sir, I'm not selling anything. I was a good friend of James and Lily Potter… I'm here to see Harry." He said.

The man growled dangerously.

"Petunia. It's one of their lot." The man called. Remus was taken aback by his tone.

A rather tall woman with a long neck came into view of the door. She must be Lily's sister. Remus had seen her once at James and Lily's wedding. She looked rather harassed, her apron splattered with mushed food. She went to the door and glared at Remus. Her husband, walking away, was making some comment about his clothes.

"What is it? What do you want?" she snapped

"Petunia, I was a friend of your sister's… I'd like to give you my sincerest apologies for your loss." He said

"Yes well… She should have stayed away from you lot… I'm assuming you're one of them?" She said

"If you mean a wizard, then yes." Remus said. She pursed her lips "I… I know this must seem odd, but they were my best friends, and if I could just see Harry one last time, it would mean so much to me."

Petunia looked like she was about to refuse, but perhaps she really did miss her sister, but she gave a curt nod. She led him into the house, which was very clean, although the kitchen seemed a bit messy, it was understandable of course, getting another child out of nowhere. There were two boys sitting next to each other in high chairs. The larger of the two must have been Petunia's son, Harry's cousin. The smaller was of course Harry, who was crying.

"He hasn't stopped since he woke up…" Petunia said, she looked rather tiered to be honest.

"He's probably just had nightmares. He went through quite a trauma." Lupin said. He knew a bit about psychology. "Do you mind if I?"

"Go ahead." She said. She seemed a bit nicer than James and Lily made her out to be, but it could be that she was still mourning over her.

Remus went over to Harry. When Harry saw the man, he stopped crying as hard and made a grabbing motion with his hands

"Moo-y?" He babbled, still sobbing as Remus picked him up. James had taken to calling his friends by their nicknames while they were around Harry. He supposed it would be easier to remember. Sirius had always called Harry pup when he was around him. Remus held him in his arms. He slowly rocked him up and down. His crying died down more.

"I'm not going to be around any more, Harry." Remus murmured silently "Dumbledore's orders. But know that your parent's loved you. Wherever they are now, they still do. I'll see you again one day, but not for a long time"

Remus felt a lump in his throat as he handed Harry back to Petunia.

"I'll… I'll be off then." Remus said. He left the house with a last look to Harry before walking off. Nobody tried to stop him.

**(I never really saw the Dursleys as pure evil, hell bent on seeing Harry suffer, maybe Vernon and Dudley, but not Petunia. I thought she was just bitter. I think that by not telling Harry the truth, Petunia was trying to protect him. I don't know, it might not be true, so feel free to disagree. I felt really bad for writing this, it's kind of a sad moment. I also cannot write well for small children and even more so for babies. According to the internet, one year olds can indeed talk to a small extent, so having Harry remember Moony and say his name I thought would be cute. For a small child. Please review if you hate it or if you like it!)**


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